Gryffindor v. Slytherin
Saturday, 24 October 1998
It had been a month since quidditch try outs. One month with Harry as the Slytherin Captain. He’d fielded a pretty solid team; himself as Seeker, Draco Black, Astoria Greengrass, and Jacob Burke, a 6th year, as Chasers, Greg Goyle back as beater with Millicent Bulstrode taking Crabbe’s spot, and Matteo Fawley, a 5th year as Keeper.
They’d been practicing 2-3 times a week and today was the first game.
As always, the opening game was Gryffindor v. Slytherin. Ginny had been doing a great job as the Gryffindor Captain. The team was almost entirely the same as it’d been in Harry’s 6th year minus Harry and Katie Bell. Ginny, Dean Thomas, and Demelza Robbins were Chasers, Ritchie Coote and Jimmy Peakes were still the Beaters (and had reportedly improved a lot over the last two years), Ron was Keeper, and Ginny had found a 4th year named Caroline Wilson who was apparently a solid Seeker.
After talking to the other captains, Michael Corner and Justin Finch-Fletchley, they’d ended up ordering t-shirts and hoodies for all of the teams from the shop in Diagon that Charlie Weasley had found. They’d also opened the order to the entire school.
The students went nuts.
They’d ended up doing House merch as well as general Hogwarts Quidditch stuff and nearly everyone had gotten something. They’d even had to send out for a second order after the first wave had arrived.
Harry had handed out the uniforms at the last practice and Draco had put on a bit of a show about keeping the number 7, just as Harry had predicted, but in the end he’d accepted his jersey that read Black 6 with only a little grumbling.
“Good morning,” Harry chirped with a grin, shaking a heavily sleeping Theo, “it’s quidditch day! Time to wake up!”
“It’s like you’re asking me to kill you.”
“You’d never kill me,” Harry said, still grinning, “you love me too much. Now wake up!”
“Get dressed, get your son dressed, and then come talk to me.”
“Alright,” Harry said, rolling out of bed, “remember I got you your own hoodie so you don’t have to steal mine.”
“That defeats the purpose,” Theo whined, “I wanna wear your hoodie.”
“They’re the exact same,” Harry said with an amused smile.
“No, they’re not. One is mine, one is yours, I want yours.”
“Fine,” Harry said, “you can wear mine.”
“Thank you,” Theo said, rolling back over and shoving his face into his pillow, “I knew you’d fold.”
“Whatever,” Harry said, “I’m getting Teddy dressed first.”
“Wait,” Theo said, rolling back over and shooting up, “let me get Teddy dressed.”
“Alright,” Harry said, holding his hands up in surrender, “go ahead.”
“You get dressed,” Theo ordered, “and go to breakfast with your team, we’ll meet you at the pitch.”
“Okay,” Harry said, drawing out the word in confusion, “whatever you say.”
“Good,” Theo said with a nod, “see you then.”
Harry shook his head at Theo’s antics and walked over to give him a kiss, “I’ll see you then, darling,” before pulling on his jeans and team sweater and heading down to breakfast.
He’d finally convinced the rest of the team that they could get changed into their full uniforms in the locker room instead of wandering the halls in robes and leathers, it was a rather lengthy debate.
The game was set to start at 9:00 and Harry had asked the team to be at breakfast by 7:30 so he was going to be a bit early but he’d learned pretty quickly that arguing with Theo is a rather fruitless pursuit.
Harry was only alone at the Slytherin table for a full minute before Draco, Greg, and Millicent appeared, having arrived together from the 8th Year Tower.
“Where are your boys?” Draco asked.
“Theo told me to get dressed and come to breakfast and that they’d meet me later,” Harry responded with a shrug, starting to fill his plate, “he was using his don’t argue with me tone so I decided to listen.”
“Smart,” Draco said with a laugh, “you know, I’m kind of glad you convinced us to just wear sweaters and slacks to breakfast and change into uniforms later, this is much more comfortable.”
“That sounded oddly like you telling me I’m right,” Harry said with a grin, “someone write down the time and date.”
“You’re the worst, Hades.”
“You love me.”
“Whatever,” Draco said, laughing as Astoria, Jacob, and Matteo joined them, “good morning.”
“Good morning,” Astoria responded, grinning and blushing at Draco who just continued eating his breakfast, “did you guys look outside? It’s perfect weather.”
“I did,” Harry said, trying not to laugh at his oblivious cousin, “should be a good day for a game.”
Astoria caught Harry’s expression and stuck her tongue out before filling her own plate and starting to eat.
The team chatted quietly about tactics and last minute tips before making their way down toward the pitch.
Harry finally understood Theo’s odd behavior when he saw Neville, Theo, and Teddy walking toward the pitch from the front gates with Andromeda and Narcissa.
Draco and Harry grinned at each other before all but sprinting toward the group.
“Mum!” Draco yelled before nearly plowing Narcissa over.
“Hello, Dragon,” she greeted, laughing, “did something excite you?”
“You came,” Draco said, grinning like a madman, “you’ve never come to one of my games before.”
“I always wanted to,” Narcissa said cupping Draco’s cheeks, “I’m so glad I’m here now.”
“Hi Andi,” Harry greeted, much more calmly than Draco but nearly as excited to have someone who cared about him enough to come watch a game, “thank you for coming.”
“Of course, dear,” Andromeda said, smiling up at Harry, “did you see your boy?”
“No,” Harry said, looking over at Theo and Teddy, “Theo got him up and dressed this morning, what’s up?”
“Look,” Theo said with a grin, passing a giggling Teddy over to Harry.
“Oh my goodness,” Harry said, smiling ear to ear, “where did you get it?”
Theo had dressed Teddy in Harry’s favorite little green and white overalls, but, instead of a plain white sweater, had put him in a tiny emerald green hoodie that said Slytherin Quidditch on the front and had POTTER printed across the back above the number 7.
“Ordered it from the same shop you lot ordered everything from,” Theo said smiling at the pair, “do you like it?”
“I love it,” Harry said, “look at you, pup, you look great!”
Teddy just babbled and grabbed a fistful of Harry’s hair in response. Which, of course, was the exact moment Andromeda snapped a photo.
“Oh good,” Harry said with a laugh, “we can preserve Teddy pulling out all my hair for posterity.”
Andromeda just smiled before shoving Neville and Draco into the picture, “I want a picture of all my boys, Gregory!” she called to Goyle who was making his way to the pitch at a much more normal speed than Harry and Draco, “get down here, you’re in this picture too!”
Greg smiled and picked up the pace, joining Neville, Theo, Draco, Harry, and Teddy, “good morning, Narcissa, Andromeda, good to see you both.”
“Good to see you too, Greg,” Narcissa said with a smile.
As they were moving apart after taking the picture, Harry saw Neville’s sweater, “Nev,” he said, laughing, “is that my Gryffindor hoodie?”
“Yes indeed, Haz,” Neville said with a grin, showing the sweatshirt off, “I had to support my brother but I couldn’t possibly be caught in Slytherin green, so I stole it from your closet this morning.”
“I let him in, so it wasn’t really stealing,” Theo said.
“Oh good,” Harry said, still laughing, “who wants Teddy? We need to get to the locker room.”
About eight people said “me,” including several members of the team.
“Someone who’s not about to play a game of quidditch,” Harry said with a laugh before passing Teddy back to Theo and pressing a kiss to his cheek then Teddy’s head, “thank you, Theo, I love you.”
“I love you too,” Theo said with a bright smile, “good luck, we’ll see you later.”
The rest of the team bid the group goodbye and followed Harry and Draco into the locker room.
“Alright,” Harry said once they were all dressed, “you all know what to do, we’ve practiced, we’re a solid team, we’re going to win this. Trust each other and play hard, I’m proud of each of you.”
“Wow,” Draco said with a laugh, “that was rather different than Flint’s speeches. Is this what it was like in the Gryffindor locker room?”
“Wood once told me to win or die trying and then I got attacked by dementors, his speeches didn’t get any more normal after that,” Harry responded.
“Well then,” Draco said, standing up and grabbing his broom, “let’s all thank the gods that Flint and Wood have graduated.”
“Hear hear,” Harry said with a laugh, grabbing his broom and heading toward the tunnel, “let’s do this.”
“Captains,” Hooch called once they’d all entered the pitch, “shake hands!”
“Ready to lose, Potter?” Ginny said with a grin.
“You’re on, Weasley,” Harry responded, shaking her hand.
At Hooch’s whistle, they were off.
It was three hours before Harry saw a glint of gold. Both teams had been playing incredibly, and the score was currently Gryffindor 210 – Slytherin 190. There had been far more shots on goal, but the keepers had been playing a great game.
The snitch was fluttering low to the ground at the very center of the pitch. Harry was floating near the Hufflepuff stands and Caroline was clear across the stadium and seemed to have not seen anything yet. Even if she’d seen it, Harry had a new broom – he’d replaced his Firebolt (that had been destroyed in the most insane rescue mission of all time before Bill and Fleur’s wedding) over the summer using some of the money Sirius had left him that was separate from the Black vaults, deciding it was exactly what Sirius would’ve wanted Harry to spend money on – and he was also an absolute madman when it came to dives.
Harry flew made his way toward the center of the field, flying casually to make it seem like he was just continuing his route. When he reached the middle, he tilted forward and shot straight down as fast as he could go, he was 15 feet from the ground before Caroline noticed he was moving.
“Merlin’s pants I forgot he could dive like that,” Seamus yelled from the announcer’s box, as Harry reached out and pulled up as hard as he could, toes brushing the ground as he raised his fist in triumph, “and he’s got the snitch! Slytherin win 340 to 210, what a great first game back!”
Within seconds, Harry was at the bottom of a dogpile.
“Gerroff,” he yelled with a massive grin on his face, “I’ve turned you lot into a bunch of rowdy Gryffindors!”
“Oi!” Draco yelled from somewhere in the middle of the pile, “I resent that.”
“Then show some decorum, Black,” Harry shot back, still grinning.
It took several minutes and the rest of their friends flooding the pitch to congratulate them before the team crawled off of Harry who tried to stand up before deciding that the ground was a rather nice place to be.
He was happier than he’d been in a long time. He had a family who cared enough to show up and watch him play, he had friends and an incredible team, and he was playing quidditch again after thinking he’d never get the chance.
He’d just closed his eyes and layed his head back down in the grass when another body flopped on top of him, “oof,” he huffed out, cracking an eye open and seeing a mess of long red hair, “Ginny, what are you doing?”
“Congratulating you,” she said with a grin and an evil glint in her eye.
“What are you doing,” Harry said, eyes widening in fear, “you look like George right now.”
“Congratulating you,” she repeated before grabbing his face and planting smacking, over-exaggerated kisses to both his cheeks, his forehead, and his nose before shoving his head back into the grass, “good game, Potter,” she chirped before standing up and disappearing.
“Your sister is insane,” Harry said, looking up at Ron who had just approached and holding out his hand for some help standing up.
“No argument there,” Ron said, yanking Harry to his feet, “good game, mate, that was a great catch.”
“Thanks,” Harry said, pulling Ron into a quick hug, “you played great as well.”
Just as Harry was about to step back, the pair were knocked back to the ground by a grinning rocket with a mess of brown curly hair, “group hug!” Hermione shouted as Ron and Harry hit the ground with a thud.
“Jesus Christ, ‘Mione,” Harry said, laughing, “you’re going to knock us out one of these days.”
“What makes you think that isn’t my goal?” she responded with a slightly evil smirk.
“You’ve been spending too much time with Ginny,” Harry declared, “this is getting dangerous.”
“If you’re quite done tackling my boyfriend,” Theo said, stepping up to the trio and smiling down, “I’d like to congratulate him, and I don’t think a pile on the ground is a good place for a 6-month-old.”
“C’mon,” Harry said, sending Theo his best puppy dog eyes, and reaching his arms up, “a pile on ground is a perfect place for a 6-month-old, pass over the pup.”
“I really need to learn how to say no to that face,” Theo grumbled, handing Teddy over who happily joined the tangle of Gryffindors on the ground.
Harry just tickled Teddy’s sides and smiled up at Theo in victory.
“Congrats, love,” Theo said, rolling his eyes, “that was a great catch, even though it scared me half to death and nearly sent Andromeda and Narcissa into cardiac arrest.”
“Am I going to get yelled at?” Harry asked, looking a little frightened.
“HADRIAN JAMES ARCTURUS POTTER-BLACK,” Andromeda’s voice called out over the pitch.
Harry just winced and looked at Teddy, “do we think it’s a good sign or a bad sign that she skipped over a couple of names?”
He put on his most innocent face and sat up just as Andromeda approached their group, she kept the stern act up for about 4 seconds before she rolled her eyes and smiled down at him, “you are far too much like your father.”
“Which one?” he said with a grin, realizing he wasn’t actually in trouble.
“Both,” Andromeda said, sounding both amused and exasperated, “all of the above, take your pick. You are insane.”
“Love you, Andi,” he responded, still grinning.
“Whatever.”